Two Poems By Judy Koren

Planetary Storm

Our overheated planet cries; clouds form;
the storm
batters and floods everything in its way
yet may,
thunder and lightning past, its fury spent,
relent
display a rainbow, fractured sunlight bent
into a promise of eternity:
unlikely though this future seems to be
the storm yet may relent.

Clouds

Cloud-shapes, hypnotic, cast on me a spell:
I know so well
they’re only make-believe, soon disappear.
But Leo’s fear
(he’s two) of monsters, dormant while it’s light
disturbs his night; 

though now they seem harmless, fluffy and white
I know they’ll menace, on his mind they’ll prey
when dark conceals them at the end of day:
I know so well that Leo’s fear disturbs his night.

Judy Koren, from Haifa, Israel, has a BA in English literature; after a career as a freelance information analyst she has returned to poetry, her first love. Her poems have appeared in Israeli and international literary magazines, the latter including Better Than Starbucks; Blue Unicorn; Lighten Up Online, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken and The Taj Mahal Review. She is currently President of Voices Israel, a society for poets writing in English.